Calgary Transit Right of Way (accident question)

[finboy]

my 12 year streak has been broken, and it looks like i am am going to be making a claim for a fender bender today

First, before anyone pipes up with "you hit someone, therefore you are at fault," I've somewhat resigned myself to my insurance company seeing me at fault as I was the car "in the back." I thought I would post here for some discussion on the topic.

I was at centre street and 12th ave, following behind a slow/overcautious driver in a hyundai (Car B). We were both heading east bound on 12th, turning south onto centre street (Right hand turn). Our light went green, he turned first, I turned behind him, and immediately around the corner we found a double lenght bus in the bus-pullout.

The bus decided to pull into the right lane where Car B had already turned into (and was past the rear bumper of the bus), I was changing lanes into the left lane to move around both of them, and was already crossing the dividing line. The bus carried through, Car B slams on the brakes, the passenger front corner of my bumper hits the driver rear corner of his car at about 10km/h. basically we collided while on the dividing line, both of our cars have prominent corner rub marks

I signal him to pull over, he seems fine avoiding insurance, etc. but the bus driver made a point of pulling over, giving us her badge number, and infroming me that "He (Car B Driver) had to stop for me because I was pulling out"

at this point, as stated earlier, I've resigned myself to the likelyhood I will be found at fault, but I wanted beyond's input on a couple of things.

-What are the laws around stopping for transit, specifically if they are forcing their way into oncoming traffic?
-if a bus forces a car into the lane of another vehicle, is their any recourse?

Basically the bus driver has put herself forward as a witness for the other driver, and he stated he couldn't do anything but stop for the bus. With no other witnesses, this leaves me in a "following too close" scenario. I thought it might be a good point of info for others on beyond, at least its the weekend.

[spikerS]

You don't have to stop for the bus, it is a courtesy, period. They have the stickers on the back that say "please yeild" but, you are under no real obligation to do so.

but yes, you are still required to maintain a safe following distance which you didn't hence the accident, regardless of what the bus did. Sorry it's not better news.

[mr2mike]

a) Minor damage which is nice.
b) Rear ending someone, you're at fault. Regardless if the person yielded to a flock of hypothetical ducks crossing the road.
Sucks but that's how it goes. Give him a few hundred for a power polish depending on depth of scratches could be a repaint.

People that never wash their cars, you hit them in an accident and suddenly that KIA badge turns into a rearing horse with a yellow background.

[Star1995]

I've had someone tell me that you need to yield to buses however I've never searched for the law that mentions it. I think it's best to do a search before believing anyone especially Stickers... it wouldn't be the first time his post gets edited or he was wrong.

[rage2]

Yielding for transit is a law in many provinces (particularly out east). Alberta is not one of them.

Regardless, that doesn't really matter in this case, but just a FYI.

[BandW]

Originally posted by mr2mike
a) Minor damage which is nice.
b) Rear ending someone, you're at fault. Regardless if the person yielded to a flock of hypothetical ducks crossing the road.
Sucks but that's how it goes. Give him a few hundred for a power polish depending on depth of scratches could be a repaint.

People that never wash their cars, you hit them in an accident and suddenly that KIA badge turns into a rearing horse with a yellow background.

Rear ending someone does not automatically imply that you're at fault.

I've been rear ended and had it deemed "50/50" because there were no witnesses and the other driver claimed I cut him off.